, which premiered at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival as part of the Encounters section, is writer/director João Canijo's){kind=link}
Viver Mal (Living Bad), which premiered at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival as part of the Encounters section, is writer/director João Canijo’s counterpart to Mal Viver (Bad Living), which also premiered as part of the Competition program.
These two films share a location and the same cast, and both deal with crumbling relationships. But the lens and the focus is very different. It’s a kind of an upstairs/downstairs vibe. While Mal Viver felt like one linear film, Viver Mal was more vignettes of guests having various degrees of relationship dissolution over their stay at a hotel that has seen better days.
The framing in Viver Mal was often voyeuristic, giving me Rear Window reminiscence as we looked into the various rooms. Rear Window near the beginning when L.B. Jefferies was mostly only observing people in their loneliness. There was no joy to capture through these windows.
While each of the chapters is a story in itself, the ordering, in addition to showing an arrival and a departure in full, also provides the fullest impact for the title. In the first chapter, the couple we meet is Jaime (played by Nuno Lopes) and Camille played by Filipa Areosa). Your first impression of them is that they don’t seem to even really like each other. On the other side, in the final chapter, when we meet Alice (played by Carolina Amaral) and Júlia, they are lovey-dovey, even if Alice had just thrown Júlia for a curveball. That is until you meet the “third” in their relationship, Júlia’s mother, Judite (played by Beatriz Batarda). I don’t want to spoil what happens in these chapters, but suffice it to say one can argue that both live up to the title by taking the opposite road.
In the other chapter, the one that falls in the middle, is Graça (played by Lia Carvalho), her mother, Elisa (played by Leonor Silveira), and Graça’s husband, Alex (played by Rafael Morais). Alex has also been sleeping with Elisa. That feels like it should be a spoiler, but it is so blatant with how they were openly flirting with each other at dinner while leaving Graça out of the conversation. There are so many things to unpack in this relationship, and the stuff said and unsaid in the gleaned backstory about Graça’s father, her brother, and why Elisa pushed her to marry Alex in the first place. There is a whole other film here, but we only get a glimpse in the window into this room before it’s time for them to check out.
That’s the point of this film, only a brief look, a transient glance, as they pass through the hotel, and the relationships will either continue to bring them down (likely), or they may eventually break free from them (if you’re hopeful).
Stray thoughts/mildly spoilery:
Often, queer coupling in films has very much been about making sure they looked super different. This usually comes down to the hair, with them either being different colours (the classic blonde and brunette pairing), or distinct lengths and textures. I’m always pleased when that stuff gets thrown out the window. That said, during their intimate scene, I did lose track of who was who for a beat. Though by that point I was more into the story, I did start to wonder if Alice was cast purposely to look similar-ish to Júlia, to represent a version of herself, the part of her she wishes to be, unshackled from the hold of her mother.
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